Grieving relatives of a British soldier killed in Iraq are outraged at Tony Blair's claim he had been executed.

Grieving relatives of a British soldier killed in Iraq are outraged at Tony Blair's claim he had been executed.

The sister of Luke Allsopp, 24, has said the Army told them he had died in combat.

And Iraqi authorities have accused the Prime Minister of making political capital out of the deaths of Sapper Allsopp and Staff Sgt Simon Cullingworth, 36.

The two soldiers were last seen on Sunday when they were caught up in enemy fire near Al Zubayr, 15 miles outside the second city of Basra. The bodies of what were said to be the two dead servicemen near their upturned Land Rover were later shown on television by the Qatar-based satellite broadcaster al-Jazeera, prompting condemnation from coalition commanders and politicians.

On a visit to America Mr Blair condemned gruesome footage of the dead soldiers shown on Iraqi TV as "an act of cruelty beyond comprehension."

Describing the images as a "reality" of Saddam Hussein's regime, he said: "His thugs prepared to kill their own people, the parading prisoners of war, and now the release of those pictures of executed British soldiers.

"If anyone needed any further evidence of the depravity of Saddam's regime, this atrocity proves it."

But speaking from the family home in Dagenham, Essex, last night, Nina Allsopp, 29, said: "The Colonel from the barracks came around to our house to tell us he was not executed. Luke's LandRover was ambushed and he died instantly.

"The Colonel told us he was doing what he could to set the record straight. We are very angry. It makes a big difference to us knowing that he died quickly. We can't understand why people are lying about what happened. It must be a mistake."

Although admitting there was not conclusive proof how the pair died, Tony Blair's official spokesman insisted the premier had been right to say the two Royal Engineer bomb disposal experts had been executed.

The footage, which lasted less than 30 seconds, showed the pair lying near their vehicle and on their backs. One of the soldiers appeared to have been shot in the chest while the other's wounds were unclear.

The Iraqi information minister Mohammad Saeed al-Sahafin told Abu Dhabi television that Mr Blair had "lied to the public" by saying it was likely the two soldiers had been killed in "a very brutal fashion".

He insisted: "He has launched a psychological war on us. We haven't executed anyone.

"They are killed in the battlefield, and most of them are killed because they are cowards and the rest are captured."